newborns in a place where the beginning of life is the hardest. how these young heroes teach the life saving techniques to a new generation. plus, moms helping moms. she's best known as scary mommy. but even she was surprised at what happened when she called on her army of mommy followers to help feed families in need this thanksgiving. a special edition of "nightline" giving thanks, giving back, begins right now. good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. a story far from american shores but with deep connections to this country. liberia, nestled on the coast of west africa, came into being when freed slave from the u.s. settled there in 1822.

but that hopeful beginning dissolved in a horrific 14-year civil war, leaving the country and its health care system in ruins. only 60 doctors remained and not a single pediatrician among them. this is where two young american doctors come in. it was a dream of gridiron glory for phil, a 1997 michigan wolverines were national champions. on that field, number 46. andy secler. a classic american story. small town boy makes it big. andy had overcome plenty to get there. his father left when he was small. his mother and he often struggled to make ends meet. >> she's like the savior of my life or the shining star for me. >> number one in his high school class, at 18 he walked on to the university of michigan football team. the following year, they won

that national championship. but andy secler, now dr. andy secler, made a decision, to live a life of less glamour and more grit. >> this is the e.r. pharmacy. >> reporter: he has chosen to come halfway around the world to this struggling hospital in liberia. a 14-year civil war destroyed just about everything here including the health care system. >> the kids come in much singer in general. >> reporter: do they? >> they come in very sick. >> reporter: this is the kid's area? >> yeah. >> reporter: a resident at mt. sinai medical school in new york, andy is here as part of a program trying to turn things around at the hospital. this hospital was a gift of the u.s. government back in the 1960s. grateful liberians named it in honor of president john f. kennedy. during the war, soldiers so ravaged the place the jfk hospital came to stand for something else, just for killing. just five years ago, the hospital still had no lights and

no running water. most of the doctors had died or fled during the war. in fact, till just a few years ago, there wasn't a single pediatrician in all of liberia. that's why andy is here. >> this counter, sometimes the children will be on the counter, just overflowing. >> reporter: he can only do so much. so he and his colleagues are determined to leave something behind. >> you doing good? you ready to go home? >> reporter: that's dr. easter ling, another resident from mt. sinai. he grew up in newark but found his way to countries line senegal. he's practiced in many far-flung places like here in earthquake-ravaged haiti. >> you get some medication today? yeah? okay. >> reporter: he and andy are here in liberia as part of a program called heart, in which every year over 70 residents from some of the nation's top medical schools including harvard, yale and university of chicago, take turns providing

care. >> -- doing treatment -- >> reporter: perhaps more importantly, they provide training for the next generation of liberian doctors and nurses. >> the heart doctors have taught how to manage very sick children. we do save more. and then the staff will learn from that and then the next time they're just doing it on their own. which is very -- >> reporter: so you have seen improvement, even in the last year? >> of course. >> reporter: today, andy and torian are teaching these midwives in training -- >> how many people have been to deliveries? >> reporter: -- about helping people's breathe in what's called the golden minute. those vital minutes just after a new baby is born. >> then you're going to assess whether the baby's crying or not crying. >> reporter: nearly two out of ten babies don't cry. which means they're not breathing on their own. >> 1, 2, 3, the baby's out. what do you do? >> reporter: without the kind of skill these young women are learning today, those babies won't make it. >> good. perfect. their baby's breathing. >> reporter: classes like these will leave a life-saving legacy

for years to come. but for andy back in the e.r. there are real lives that need saving right now. 3-month-old cartai has been rushed to the hospital by his mother. he struggled for every breath. >> there's a rush, there's an urgent situation. >> reporter: for andy, the stress inside the cramped emergency room is familiar. >> the values i learned playing big-time football, just a discipline to prepare yourself, i just use in my everyday life. >> reporter: when the pressure's on, you have to perform. >> yeah. >> reporter: andy can see the baby is in bad shape but it's unclear exactly what's wrong with him. the tests he would have ordered back at home are not possible here. they can't even find a mask small enough to fit the baby's tiny face. >> put in 60 ccs. >> reporter: in a threadbare e.r. on the other side of the world, does andy have what it takes to save the baby's life?

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liberia's people are overwhelmingly young. over 40% of them under 14. the result of the bloody civil war that nearly wiped out a whole generation. the war also left the country with virtually no doctors, just 1 for every 100,000 people. in the u.s., that number's closer to 1 for every 200 people. not surprisingly, the rate of infant death is high. we're following a team of american doctors determined to change that. liberia is a country trying to

learn how to live again. a 14-year civil war of extraordinary violence nearly destroyed this place. [ gunfire ] teenage soldiers given drugs by their commanders. rape, torture, even claims of cannibalism abounded. by the time the war ended in 2003, a quarter of a million liberians were dead. most of the country was in shambles. including the jfk hospital. where till just a few years ago, there was no electricity or running water. the emergency room is functioning again with the help of american doctors like andy sechler. his littlest patient this day, 3-month-old cartai who's been rushed to the hospital by his mother, struggling for every breath. unable to do the kind of tests he'd do at home, andy's not quite sure what's wrong with cartai who had been in the e.r. just a month before. >> can i ask you a question?

there's a patient in the pede's e.r. >> reporter: one resource he has, his cell phone. calling to the united states to the last doctor to see the baby. >> i was wondering if this is heart failure. >> reporter: he gives the baby medication for what he believes is a congenital heart defect. >> i think we're improving here. >> reporter: it worked but cartai needs more, surgery, surgery that is not available anywhere in liberia. andy has the grim task of telling cartai's mother that what her baby needs is something he can't provide. >> it's frustrating for me because i know that giving xyz, you know, intervention or tests, whatever, i could do more for the child. >> reporter: that is part of practicing medicine here. coming to terms with what you can't do. how many kids died the last time you were here? >> i was here for six weeks and, like, 15 or 18 children died that i saw. you know, we don't see that at home. that was very difficult for me. there is some sense that among

the staff and the doctors if they're kind of used to it because they aren't able to do anything to turn these things around. >> reporter: part of what they're doing is teaching the staff here to expect more. >> you know, we always have the saying, t.i.a., this is trick. but the humility. >> reporter: t.i.a. this is africa. >> exactly. it's almost as if just trying to get things done, trying to help somebody get a crutch, you know, someone who's broken their leg, simple things. so we're working on just the basic necessities. >> reporter: what about all that high-tech expertise you've got at mt. sinai? >> i left it there. left it there. the patient came severely m malnourished. >> reporter: diagnosing patients like miracle johnson sometimes requires going back to basics. >> this is a 4-month-old baby not gaining weight. we found a way to really understand, okay, they're not gaining weight, why are they not gaining weight? >> reporter: the answer he

thinks is tb, something rarely seen in the u.s. >> you have to understand what's going on in this environment. >> reporter: torian's cell phone comes in handy as well. >> just going to pass it around. >> reporter: there is no light box to look at miracle johnson's x-ray, but his cell phone is passed around during rounds so next time the staff will know what a tb x-ray looks like. it's hard to see so many sick children. 10% of all the babies born in liberia won't make it to their first birthday. many die from malaria. as many as half the people in this country have the devastating disease at any one time. >> malaria is the worst thing i've ever seen. it can completely destroy a normal healthy baby. it can be really scary too. takes some getting used to. >> reporter: at home you're more removed. at home, you defer a lot to sub specialists or ct scan or other things. when things go wrong here, it's --

>> reporter: it's you. >> more emotional. yeah. >> reporter: at the other end of the hospital, things are going wrong. this woman is in the final stage of labor. but the baby won't come. it's stuck in a life threatening position. without an emergency c-section, the child won't survive. so they rush her into the hospital's only functioning operating room. she's one of the lucky ones. liberia has one of the worst maternal death rates in the world. in part because there are so few places like this. within minutes, baby cinda meets the world. and it's clear cinda needs no help breathing. an awful lot of people back home in the u.s. look at africa as just a series of endless insurmountable problems, that it's always going to be poor, and it's always going to be -- people are always going to be struggling and dieing. >> yes, the environment and the resources are different. there's individuals here, they

want to live. they have hopes, they have dreams, they have inspirations, just like anybody else. hello, angel. the next morning i asked torian to help me find baby cinda. it's an emotional moment. realizing that without this hospital this beautiful baby girl wouldn't be here. i saw you come out of your mommy's belly yesterday. i did. i did. i heard your first little cry. okay. i'm going to cry. wrapped up in her blanket is the promise of a new generation of liberians who might yet heal the wounds of war. born in a hospital, finding its way back from the brink. with the help of some doctors very far from home. ah, the hope contained in that little blanket. our greatitude to the doctors ad liberians who are dedicated to making a difference. when we come back, the mom to

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while many of us tonight still have full bellies from our thanksgiving feast, with so many americans straddling the poverty line, a holiday dinner with all the fixings isn't always possible.

juju chang introduces us to a woman who made thanksgiving dinner a reality for nearly 400 families this year by harnessing the power of the internet and by that wondrous byproduct of the human heart, giving. >> reporter: jill is a wildly popular mommy blowigger known f poking fun. but she began noticing confessions were less about desperate housewives and more about plain desperation. >> one confession a mom said, we're going to have to skip thanksgiving this year because i can't afford it. >> reporter: jill knew an average thanksgiving dinner cost $50. not a lot to some but insurmountable to others. she did something that surprised even herself. she posted a blog to her twitter followers and basically promised to help any mom in need get thanksgiving dinner. >> i was banking on not only this act but i had readers who would step up and say, i need help but i was also banking on the fact i had readers who would

say i can give help. >> reporter: her simple post lit a fire and in less than a week 700 mommies chipped in which provided turkeys with all the trimmings to more than 400 families. like the schroeders of warren, michigan. sara works to help the homeless. her husband stays home with the two kids. their daughter's illness, college loans and her husband losing his job put them in deep debt, up to $50,000. late at night, sara had been secretly pouring her heart out on jill's blog. >> having other moms write back and say, i've been there, and i get it. i don't like having to tell my kids that water's the only thing left to drink because i can't afford milk. that makes me feel like i'm not the mom that i think i should be. >> reporter: the schroeders are an example of america's dirty little secret, the near poor. hungry but not yet homeless. new meaning to the phrase living paycheck to paycheck.

>> we wait till payday, sometimes waiting till exactly 12:01 to run out and buy milk for the kids the next day. >> reporter: what have you learned about hunger in america? >> i've learned it's everywhere. it's real moms who we may not, you know, recognize on the surface are struggling. >> that one is the one you want? >> reporter: moms helping moms do what moms do best, feed their families a loving meal. most of the donors gave anonymously. but jill introduced me to several on skype. >> the thought of another mother not being able to provide her children with food breaks my heart. >> as a kid myself, we went through a period of time where we were one of those families and it really stayed with me. i try to pay it forward when i can and this is an opportunity to do that. >> when i had my triplets, strangers came out to help us out with little things. i've always felt that i have wanted to return that help in any way that i could. >> reporter: the williams family

of san diego were grateful that dad is home for the holidays. he was stationed in the middle east fixing helicopters for the navy last thanksgiving. a military salary often doesn't stretch far enough for an elaborate feast. >> turkey on friday, saturday, sunday. >> you're going to get tired of turkey sandwiches. >> no. >> reporter: for all the families, both giving and receiving, it's been a true lesson of thanksgiving. >> happy thanksgiving! >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm juju chang in baltimore, maryland. >> finding the true spirit of giving. good night, america. tonight on kimmel live -- the name of the special is kim and kris fairy tale wedding. key word, fairy tale. do we also believe jack and the bean stock were real? >> ellen degeneres. >> i think we share a level of nice. >> i think we know who's nicer but anyway, the